Potential donations from the 800,000 people have been temporarily put on hold.

Mr Burnham did not apologise but said: âI want to assure the millions of people on the organ donor register they can have full confidence that their wishes will be respected.

âThis has clearly not happened in a small number of cases in the past, and I deeply regret the distress caused to the families. In all cases, donation was discussed with family members before decisions were made. It is important that those who wish to donate tell their families of their wishes.â

While many of the 17 million registered donors give consent for all their organs to be used after their death, some have withheld consent for certain organs â such as their eyes.

The British Medical Association warned yesterday public confidence in organ donation could be severely damaged. Joyce Robins, of pressure group Patient Concern, said: âIt is horrific that such sensitive details were handled in such a careless way.â

The mistake came to light last year when the NHS wrote letters of thanks to new donors. They wrote back complaining the information was wrong.